Ever closer

With the beginning of March, there are now less than four months to go before I depart for Japan! Spring is almost here and I have now begun working on teaching myself hiragana. So far, I feel comfortable enough with it and I hope to have the 46 basic characters safely tucked away in my head before spring break (school is taking up a lot of my Japanese study time). I've decided I also really want to focus on verbs and vocab at this point so I've made flashcards and hopefully they will do me some good. On another note, I am super excited because I received an email from AFS today that my application has been sent off to AFS Japan! YAY! This means I am one step closer to being on my exchange!!! I keep staring at my calender hoping that it is farther into the month than it really is, the days just won't go by fast enough. Oh June, why won't you come just a bit quicker?

Taking a Test

A little while back, we received the tentative dates for departure to Japan. So go figure, two of my Regents exams are scheduled in between those dates. Luckily, there is a week for retaking Regents during January and so, call me crazy if you must, I have decided to try passing the Earth Science Regents Exam half way through the year to make departure less stressful (due to the 4 Regents I have to take the week before I leave). My friend, Megan, and I took on the task of teaching ourselves the half a year worth of Earth Science that we have yet to learn in class... all in one night! It was an adventure to say the least, especially because we signed up for the regents exam one day, studied all night the next day, and took the exam on the third day XD

Taking the test after studying all night was another adventure all together. Three hours of sitting in a cold room with only myself, Megan, and the guidance counselor while trying to make sense of all the questions on concepts we had yet to learn. I'm sure I looked like a crazy person as I twisted my pencil around in the air to get an idea of where the earth would be during a specific season compared to the sun or using my hands to get a sense of questions. I managed to finish the test with fifteen minutes to spare and by that time I was starving (lunch had been over for about thirty minutes by the end of the exam) and I was pretty much frozen solid. The room was for some unknown reason extremely cold!

So today (the day after the regents exam) our science teacher told us we passed! HUZZAH! Studying all night and freezing for three hours has paid off!!! This means we have 1 regents down, three to go. I am also excited because there are only 5 months left until I depart for Japan! Everyone in my class has been asking Megan and I all about the exchange program we are doing and one person even tried to convince us to bring them with us :) I just can't wait for June and I am still working steadily on learning Japanese.

New Years!

Happy New Years Eve!

So I am now in waiting mode as 2010 finally begins. AFS Japan will be taking applications early in the year! I am still pressing ahead with teaching myself Japanese(of course I will arrive in Japan only to find out I have been learning all the wrong stuff and I will probably start speaking Spanish XD) My friend, Megan, and I continue to talk in Japanese during school and our most common statements have so far been "Ichigo!" (Strawberry!) and "Atsui ne." (It's hot, isn't it?) About the second statement, we say it even when it's really cold (due to the fact that we are right in the middle of a rather bitter winter) because apparently talking about the weather is a great way to start a conversation!

I finally bought a camera recently, so I am now prepared to take lots of pictures over the summer! The camera takes around 850 pictures, but I have this funny feeling that all of that memory space will be filled up within the first 5 minutes of arriving in Japan :)

One Day Closer

My excitement is ever growing as today my application has been sent in to AFS! From here, I now begin the wait to hear back from them and find out if I have been accepted. Every day that I walk out the door for school, my dad always hollers after me "Remeber, this is one day closer to Japan!" The days never seem to go by fast enough, that's for sure. I am getting in a lot of language studying time during my study halls at least. I'm excited now as I am finding that there are more and more things I can say and understand in Japanese!

The First Step

My name is Sophia and for the summer of 2010 I will be on an AFS summer exchange program to Japan. While in Japan, I will be attending classes at a language school to learn more about Japanese and I just can't wait! There is something about languages that I just love and this is huge opportunity for me to really learn more about them. So, of course, I hope to bring away from this experience a new understanding of a language, but that's not my only reason for going. I also love the food, nature, and culture of Japan so much. This will be my chance to learn so much more about all of those things along with the chance to meet many new people and really learn more about the world.
My family has been very supportive of my decision to become an exchange student. When my principal first gave me the idea to do an exchange program, I was doubtful that I would be allowed to go, but to my surprise my parents were okay with the idea. I am so grateful to them for supporting me. And as for my friends, one of them is also applying for this program! We are both extremely interested in Japan and we're both looking forward to the experience of being exchange students. We even have random conversations in school where we speak in Japanese to practice and it is a lot of fun!